The hand drawn ones better myself. It kind of makes me want to set up a pictionary game between that guy and chad myers. Im just thankful ill never have to draw my own graphics because its always sunny here on the rediculist. Thats it for now. Thanks for watching. Early start begins right now. Duped at notre dame. One of the most inspirational sports stories of the past year proves to be a hoax. But who is to blame . All the talk this morning. And is the dreamliner a lemon . Boeings troubled jumbo jet grounded in america and in europe as well. Desert standoff. Americans among those held captive right now by militants in algeria. Good morning. Welcome to early start. Im john berman. We have a lot to talk about today. Its crazy. Manti teo is that story. Good morning. Im Zoraida Sambolin. Its 5 00 a. M. In the east. Its the story everyone is talking about. Notre dame star linebacker manti teo claiming he was the victim of a hoax. Deadspin. Com ripped a hole in his story, leading the irish to the bcs title game while dealing with the death of a girlfriend with leukemia. But now it turns out the girlfriend didnt die, it turns out she never existed. Reporter university of notre dame Athletic Director fought back tears while discussing manti teo at a news conference. He is convinced teo was the victim of an elaborate hoax. The thing im most sad about is sorry. That the single most trusting human being ive ever met will never be able to trust in the same way again. Reporter during the football season the story of the star linebacker enduring the death of his girlfriend and grandmother on the same day transcended sports. People from around the world were touched by how in love teo seemed to be with lennay kekua, the girl he called his soul mate. I cried. I yelled. Never felt that way before. This is six hours ago i just found my grandma passed away. You take, you know, the love of my life. Reporter on the day of his girlfriends supposed funeral, teo played football. After the game, notre dames football coach, brian kelly, actually awarded the game ball to the girl we now know doesnt exist. Award this game ball to lennay. Id like manti to have this ball to take back to hawaii. Reporter teo told his coaches about the hoax december 26th. Notre dame kept the truth under wraps despite the fact that the media was still telling the story leading up to the National Championship game. The outset, we established a parameter that this was mantis story to tell. We wanted to know it would be told. We wanted to know at the appropriate time when it would be told. Reporter in m. Peopmany peo think teos story doesnt add up. Teos story that hes completely innocent in this doesnt shake through with us. Reporter what still isnt clear is why didnt mantei teo never mention that he never met lennay when talking about how much he loved her. How did the story about how they first met at a Football Game start and if it wasnt true, why didnt he correct it . And how could he be so in love with someone he never actually met face to face . I think as manti tells the story, will you see the same thing i saw t does fully line up. Clearly we still need to hear from mani teo about this. There are so many questions. From the beginning there was the story about how they met. They gazed at each other after a game in california that doesnt appeared to have happened. And how could this have gone on for so long. I take issue with the university having known as early as they did and not coming out saying, look, were investigating this, or theres a separate entity investigating this, but this story seems to be a hoax. I dont get it. There are so many questions, youre right. Weve been talking about it all morning long. Did he ever really meet this woman . He didnt. He never met her. She didnt exist, and she didnt die. But did he say he met her or was that just information circulating based on what somebody thought they heard. So many layers. Questions about honesty and about journalism here. We will be talking about this for days to come. We do have other news now including winter storm warnings in effect today for mississippi to washington, d. C. Meteorologist Jennifer Delgado with a look at that. Hi. Weve been talking about the heavy rain across parts of the south and now were talking about snow. Its coming down now for areas including mississippi. You can see on the radar now its coming down this morning. Well continue to see those Winter Weather advisories in place for mississippi through the Morning Hours. Then that storm system will shift over to the west and effect areas like alabama, especially later this afternoon and into the northern parts of georgia. Right now for atlanta, you can see, for birmingham, we are just looking at heavy rainfall. Again, well see that rain shifting over to snow. Once we get more of that cold air working in, for washington, d. C. Right now you are looking at rain, but you will see that snow working in as we get to the afternoon hours. Here is a look at the Winter Weather advisories and warnings out there. Anywhere in pink and purple. In addition to this this will lead to driving problems. Some of these areas will look at one to two inches of snowfall for parts of mississippi. Then notice for western parts of virginia, some of these locations could see roughly four to six inches of snowfall in the higher elevations. We get snow in atlanta, they freak out down here. They dont go to work. They dont know how to plow it. Just the reality here. Youll freak out a little bit, too. Youll get brave. Brace yourself down there, jennifer. We have a lot of other major news, including a hostage crisis unfolding at this hour in a remote corner of algeria, where islamic terrorists are Holding Americans and other foreigners working at a natural gas complex. There could be as many as 41 hostages. The details of the kidnapping and the number held is hazy, but there is confirmation that 1 norwegians have been taken along with 5 japanese and 1 irish national, at least 3 americans, maybe more, and an unconfirmed british workers. One of whom was killed. We want to bring in elise lavin. Reports say this attack was in response to frances military action in mali. What do you know about this . Reporter thats what this group who took these hostages, they call themselves the masked brigade, an al qaeda affiliate, if you l is saying this was in response for french intervention in mali. What im told by sources is that they could be using this as an excuse. This french intervention and algerians is very controversial among this group. But the level of planning that went into this attack suggests that is predates any type of french intervention, and they could just be using this to protect the fact that theyve been planning for so long. Theyre also looking for a few other things other than ending this intervention. Theyre looking for their prisoners that are held by algeria and others to be released to mali where the group is based. At this stage of the game right now there are so many hostages, as many as 40. Whats being done to potentially free them . The algerians have the lead. They say they wont negotiate with the hostages, but clearly you have the united states, the british, other countries all there contemplating rescue attempts. We dont know yet what exactly they would do. But the u. S. Does have a lot of assets in the region. Its possible they could be thinking about some kind of rescue operation. Right now algerians are surrounding the compound. All right. Elise labbot this morning, thank you very much. President obamas call for new legislation to reduce gun violence is receiving a cool reception on capitol hill. On wednesday the president unveiled a list of proposals including a ban on the sale of assault weapons and instituting background checks on all gun sales. He released his proposals one month after the massacre in newtown, connecticut that killed 20 first graders and six adults. If there is even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if theres even one life that can be saved, then we have an obligation to try. Athere are many members of congress who believe gun control laws are an attack on their Second Amendment right to bear arms. A new poll shows a slight drop over the past month in support of new gun control measures. 56 supported a ban on semiautomatic weapons, thats down from 62 in december in a poll taken right after the sandy hook massacre. We said theres a lot to going on today. A Major Business story going on on top of Everything Else now. Boeing with the jumbosized pr problem on its hands today as more airlines move to ground the muchhyped dreamliner. Well have the latest on that. And kidnapped and held in a basement when she was just 10 years old. Katie beers tells her story 20 years later. If loving you is wrong i dont wanna be right [ record scratch ] what . its not bad for you. It just tastes that way. [ female announcer ] honey nut cheerios cereal hearthealthy, whole grain oats. You cant go wrong loving it. Sven gets great rewards for his Small Business how does this thing work . Oh, i like it [ garth ] svens Small Business earns 2 cash back on every purchase, every day woohoo so thats ten security gators, right . Put them on my spark card why settle for less . Testing hot tar. Great businesses deserve great rewards [ male announcer ] the spark Business Card from capital one. Choose unlimited rewards with 2 cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day whats in your wallet . Heres your invoice. But with advair, im breathing better. So now i can be in the scene. Advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. Unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an antiinflammatory and a longacting bronchodilator working together to help improve your lung function all day. Advair wont replace fastacting inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than twice a day. People with copd taking advair may have a higher chance of pneumonia. Advair may increase your risk of osteoporosis and some eye problems. Tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high Blood Pressure before taking advair. If youre still having difficulty breathing, ask your doctor if including advair could help improve your lung function. Get your first full prescription free and save on refills at advaircopd. Com. Your doctor will say get smart about your weight. Thats why theres glucerna hunger smart shakes. They have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. A smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. Welcome back to early start. The brakes are on the future of air travel this morning. The faa temporarily grounded the boeing 787 dreamliner to address the potential fire risk from an onboard battery. This move comes after battery failures forced two japanese 787s to make Emergency Landings over the past two weeks. Japans two largest airliners have also grounded their airline fleet. Sandra endo is in washington for us. What exactly is this issue with the plane . Reporter the lithiumion batteries used on boeings marquee plane, the dreamliner, is in question here. Citing a potential fire risk, the federal Aviation Administration is temporarily grounding all u. S. Operated dreamliners. In a statement the faa says before further flight, operators of u. S. Registered boeing 787 aircraft must demonstrate to the faa that batteries are safe and in compliance. United airlines is the only u. S. Airline with six dreamliners in service and says it will immediately comply with the directive and nearly all International Regulators have also followed suit. Boeing, for their part, they are defending their advanced plane which debuted in 2011 saying in a statement we are confident the 787 is safe, we stand behind its overall integrity. Well be taking every step in the coming days to assure our customers and the traveling public of the 787s safety and to return the airplanes to service. Wednesday, as you mentioned, an Al Nippon Airways flight had to make an Emergency Landing after an alarm indicated a possible battery problem and smoke in the forward compartment. Last week a battery in the Japan Airlines dreamliner in boston caught on fire. That lithium battery manufactured by Japanese Company gsu ossa is being examined by the ntsb. That whole lithium battery thing is brand new, so it raises a lot of questions. I was reuas reading it was a de three years because of problems as they were attempting to launch. We know united operates six of the 50 787s in the world what are other countries doing now . Usually when the faa gives out a directive, International Aviation communities follow suit. Thats what were seeing here. We know this morning, cnn has confirmed that european, chilean, indian and qatar authorities have grounded their fleets. They are not being flown until further notice. Until they figure out if theyre safe. Sandra endo, thank you. As we said, there was a lot going on today. Christine is here with the headlines. Americans and other foreign nationals becoing held hostage algeria. Islamic militants targeted a gas field targeting foreign officials there. Several hostages were seized, including americans. 30 algerians taken hostage have managed to escape. An american soldier accused of murdering 16 afghan civilians, 9 of them children, he is set to be arraigned today. A defense Attorney SaysStaff Sergeant robert bales will plead not guilty. He is being held at a base in washington state. Bales allegedly murdered the civilians in a nighttime raid last march. The world awaits Oprah Winfreys oneonone with Lance Armstrong tonight. Its widely reported he will admit to doping but what else will he say . The interview has not aired, but the damage control is underway. A source telling us that armstrong is already in talks to return some of his endorsement money. A Northern California man facing a 14,000 property tax bill, paid his tab in rolls of coin. Stacks of dollar bills. Larry casper said he tried to pay half his bill weeks ago but the county would only accept payment in full. So he asked family to empty out their piggie banks. Every year at this time, this becomes the park city, utah Sundance Film Festival. Sundance traditionally a mecca for independent films. Some 50,000 people expected to descend on the town over the next ten days. Next week you guys are traveling to sundance, right . Im heading to sundance. Ill be part of those 50,000 people. Its my first time at sundance. You are so fabulous, arent you . Yes, yes, im trying to figure out what to wear. If you have advice, let me know. Youll look glamorous, no doubt. Gloves and boots. Im hearing its rather cold. It is now 18 minutes after the hour, time to get an early read on your news making National Headlines this from the New York Daily News as it revisits the story of katie beers. 20 years as a girl she was kidnapped and held for two weeks in a small dungeonlike room. A family aquaintance was convicted of kidnapping and serving time in prison. Beers is now a married mother of two and wrote a book about her ordeal. Soledad will talk to katie beers this morning in the 8 00 hour of starting point. In the washington times, petitioning the u. S. Government online got harder. The white house is raising the minimum number of online signatures needed to get an official response from 25,000 to 100,000. Its getting a lot harder. Signatures have to be compiled within 30 days of the petition filing. The white house director of Digital Strategy said the change was made to make sure they continue to give the most popular ideas the time that they deserve. One petition late last year called on the white house to secure funding to begin construction of the death star. By its closing date the petition received 34,435 signatures. To me, the death star always seemed impractical. There were too many glaring weaknesses. They built two, two were destroyed. Never seemed like a good investment for the u. S. Government for me. Thanks for weighing in on that. Serious story. For more, head to our blog, cnn. Com earlystart. You can also follow us on twitter and facebook. To understand the scope of Boeings Dreamliner fiasco, you have to know how much money is on line for the company. Its a lot. Yeah. Well break it down coming up. Ever. Nurses are dealing with a wider range of issues. And there are everchanging regulations. When you see these challenges, do you want to back away or take charge . With a degree in the field of healthcare or nursing from capella university, youll have the knowledge to advance your career while making a difference in the lives of patients. Lets get started at capella. Edu. Nothing. Are you stealing our Daughters School supplies and taking them to work . No, i was just looking for my stapler and my. This thing. I save money by using fedex ground and buy my own supplies. Thats a great idea. Im going to go. We got clients in today. [ male announcer ] save on ground shipping at fedex office. Minding your business this morning, u. S. Stock futures trading mixed this morning. Stocks closed mixed yesterday also. The dow was dragged down by boeing which is down more than 3 this morning. Christine has all of the latest developments in Boeings Dreamliner nightmare. Youve been following this story closely. For years. This was the big new deal for boeing. Boeing would lead the world with this new hightech plane, hightech systems in engineering. Its a model in outsourcing. The company paired with companies around the world, including the Japanese Company that makes the liteon ion battery that is at the center of this. Instead its a lot of concerns now. The faa is grounding a